Like many of you, we here at Shack kicked off today by watching the more than half hour Nintendo Direct address from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata himself. Of course, it conjured up the entire spectrum of emotions so let's just start with the good. Nintendo is listening! Much of the vid was focused on SOFTWARE. Iwata started off with an apology for the lack of new titles in January and February, qualifying the apology by saying that they need time to make "quality games" basically Iwata said, "Chill out, people! " then he listed off a few games we will be playing in the near future, Pikmin 3, WiiFit U and Lego City Undercover. But the only game we got a good look at was the Wonderful 101 and it looks amazing. For me, this was easily the highlight of the entire Nintendo Direct video. It was the only info that was exciting, tangible and concrete. In 36 minutes, I would have hoped for more.

Onto the ALRIGHT. We did have some big triple A semi-announcements. I guess we all know there is going to be a Mario Kart, a Smash Bros. and a 3D Mario game eventually but why even mention it in this address if it's just to tell us vaguely that they kinda sorta exist. But having said that, it did make me happy to hear Iwata audibly name them by title even if it was just to say "Have patience". On top of the big games mentioned, the MiiVerse was discussed heavily in the first third of the video. Offering everything you would come to expect from a console a couple years ago such as taking screenshots from within Pikmin 3 of accessing your MiiVerse from your smartphone. Cool, sure, but features largely assumed to be standard nowadays. The virtual console was discussed as well, which is all well and good, but the pricing left a little to be desired for games that generally don't hold much value other than nostalgia.

Now for the UGLY, not only were we not given any info on the new Zelda buuut it's so far away from being a real thing that they are remaking Wind Waker and even that only has one screenshot. What a debacle! Also, we got a 4th wall destroying look at Bayonetta which if you like wire frames you are in luck. And that was capped off with Bayonnetta seductively asking us "Do you want to touch me?"(defeated)....Yes....yes, I do. (Sigh). Overall, this whole address was strangely littered with half apologies passive aggressively inferring we are being impatient. What is up, Nintendo? What was the rush with getting the Wii U out a year before the competition? And hey, I will gladly eat crow if the new Zelda is amazing. So yes, we will be patient. Because we have no choice.

Onto the 6th and 5th spots in Shacknews.com's Game of the Year countdown. At number 6, one of the most controversial games of the year. The game with the polarizing ending. Mass Effect 3. I loved ME3, sure the ending was lame but it didn't ruin the fond memories we had together. And cracking the top 5. Far Cry 3. Who knows how high on this list it could have gotten if it didn't come out so late in the year. From those who got to play it before years end, the percentage was high who deemed it their GOTY. How do you guys feel about the list so far? Let us know in the comments.

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